A man who died after he was dragged down a Washington, D.C. Metro station platform when his dog's leash apparently got stuck in a train door was inseparable from his service animal, his family says.
Harold Riley, 50, had stepped off a 7000 series train around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Dunn Loring station, when the door closed behind him, but his dog Daisy was still inside the train, Metro said.
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Daisy's leash, which was tied to Riley, was caught in the door and Riley was pulled down the platform when the train started moving to the next station.
The family told News4 Harold likely had Daisy’s leash tied to his belt loop because that’s how they trained her to walk with him.
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Riley's family told News4 he went everywhere with the service dog and she helped him cope with PTSD.
"My father rides that Metro probably five, six, seven times a day … and he’s been doing that, I would say, for probably the last year-and-a-half with Daisy. And Daisy goes everywhere with him, you know, like, she’s never home alone," Riley's daughter Amanda Greenwood said.
Metro said the train operator conducted two safe door checks before moving the train. The operator's cab was about 450 feet away from the incident. Metro said Wednesday it was reviewing surveillance video of the incident.
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Greenwood said her family wants to see the video and find out more details about what exactly happened.
“We have a lot of questions, obviously, just because as … a tragedy like that happening, there’s no set in stone. Our understanding is there’s a video out there and of all of that. We're just trying, of course, obviously, to get access to kind of see what actually happened, what safety measures were taken and all of that," she said.
Metro Transit Police tried to perform lifesaving measures on Riley, but he was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.
Riley had two daughters and four grandchildren, his family said.
Metro's watchdog, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, also is investigating.
The News4 I-Team tracked down a Metro report from May that said 86 riders were injured in the first nine months of the fiscal year 2022, a decline of 38% from the previous year.
Most riders were hurt by slips, trips or falls, most commonly on escalators, the report said.
